Long-time WUOT Supporter Alice Torbett Says Station Connected Her to the Community

Alice Torbett stands in front of a blooming dogwood tree, smiling broadly while wearing black-rimmed glasses and a cornflower blue t-shirt overlayed with a button-up shirt of the same color but with white pin stripes.

Forty-six years ago, Alice Torbett was unpacking boxes in her new hometown of Knoxville when the phone rang. Upon answering, a very excited voice on the other end exclaimed, “Oh Mary, go and get WUOT on your radio right now! They’re playing a beautiful Schumann piano piece.” Torbett wasn’t the intended recipient of that call, but nonetheless it was a pivotal moment in the classical music lover’s life.

“I was so sorry I wasn’t Mary, and I didn’t have a friend like the person who was on the end of the line, but that’s how I was introduced to WUOT, and I’ve been a listener ever since,” she said.

By that point, the Johnson City native had both classical music and news woven into the tapestry of her life. Her family had owned the Johnson City Press Chronicle, for which she wrote freelance feature articles, and her husband David was a singer who dabbled in learning opera arias. WUOT, the National Public Radio station that serves East Tennessee, gave Torbett the daily dose of local and international news she needed alongside the music she enjoyed. 

It wasn’t long before Torbett started donating during the annual pledge drives that allow WUOT to continue serving the community. 

“I’ve always loved the fund drives. I’ve always been a competitor and make sure I’m in on those down-to-the-wire calls. I felt very much a part of a community by participating in the fund drives,” she said. “Every time I respond to the pledge drive, which I always try to do – especially if I can get a new mug—I always say I love Fresh Air and I appreciate the news programs; but I cannot get classical music anywhere else, which is the basis of my support.”

When she came to Knoxville, it was after her husband’s job took them to the Washington, DC, area for three years. David Torbett graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a law degree and eventually became a circuit court judge in Northeast Tennessee. His job with Department of the Interior in Washington eventually brought them back to their home state, where he served as a federal administrative law judge dealing with strip mining legislation.

“We got to choose where we got to live, and we chose Knoxville,” she said.

Though she didn’t have expectations of enjoying the same urban amenities as she did in the nation’s capital, she was quite pleased that the Knoxville Civic Opera was forming just around the same time the Torbett’s arrived in town. She and her husband became ardent supporters of the local opera, fostering a strong belief in the impact such musical endeavors have on a community.

“The arts provide a connection to the heart of the community, a shared understanding that you can’t get anywhere else,” she said.

But even before that, Torbett said it was the ability to turn the dial and tune in to WUOT that tethered her to her new community and made her feel like she belonged. Community is important to her, and as she settled into Knoxville, she began investing in it through various ways. She’s been on the boards of both the Knoxville Opera and has been involved with the League of Women Voters, Clarence Brown Theatre, and the Rotary Club of Knoxville. 

Over the years, Torbett has noticed the station continually evolves to serve the community and has taken note of changes happening under the new leadership of General Manager Jody Hamblett. For example, the expanded emphasis on local news coverage and the impending launch of a local news podcast has impressed her.

“[WUOT has} been relevant at every phase of my life here in Knoxville. It’s not just the music…I trust the news on WUOT,” she said. “There always has been a deep commitment to local and government issues; maybe a panel discussion, maybe a special segment that comes on every week that is in-depth about what’s happening locally. And I was happy to hear that there’s going to be more of a focus on that because it’s not getting that much focus any more in the print media.”

Though Torbett refers to herself as “just a listener,” it is people like her who enable the station to keep going and for its journalists to expand their efforts in reporting on local news. She said she appreciates that WUOT recently came under the umbrella of UT’s College of Communication and Information, particularly because of the opportunities it creates for students to get hands-on experience in producing local broadcast news segments. 

“I think it’s wonderful. The students are part of the community,” she said.

Torbett is cognizant of the many changes technology has wrought in the consumption of news and media, and she appreciates that WUOT is changing with the times. It is the next generation, after all, that will need to take the reins and continue sustaining the station. That’s why she was particularly pleased when she discovered she’d influenced her grandson by playing WUOT all the time when he stayed with her in summer 2023.

“He told his mother, ‘Grandmama always listens to classical music at night.’ And I said something like, ‘Oh, I hope he didn’t hate it!’ and she said he enjoyed it. My experience has more of an influence than my promotion,” she said with a chuckle. 

Nonetheless, Torbett said she’s always happy to promote the station. Its impact and relevance to her life has been a throughline of her forty-six years in Knoxville. 

“I think WUOT has always been the voice of the community for me. Every musical event that I learned about was through WUOT. People who are interested in the things that interested me seem to have a spot on the radio somehow. Maybe an interview, maybe a news broadcast, maybe an announcement—community announcements were very important. It’s actually a voice that introduced me to the community, especially in the first years that we were here. I think it was one of the strongest local connections that I felt,” she said.

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